


Through Another's Eyes

by Nihonkikuasa211



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Mentor-Student Relationship, POV Original Character, Post-Break Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 01:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6218080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nihonkikuasa211/pseuds/Nihonkikuasa211
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The new surgical resident from Japan sees the relationship between her sensei and Christa Lorenson, and thinks about her relationship with the surgical attending and his relationship with the blond resident as she watches him stand in the rain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through Another's Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone actually reads this, I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you think of Aoi. I'm thinking about adding her into a couple of stories I (some day) will write.

_Through Another's Eyes  
_

_Sensei…_

      Dr. Aoi Yasunari had arrived not too long ago from Japan. It had been only six months since she had arrived in Los Angeles, and Angels Memorial Hospital. She remembered her first day there. It had been a warm day, and Aoi was still getting used to time difference between Los Angeles and Kyoto. Although she had already said goodbye to her colleagues and her mother and father in Japan, the first year resident could already see the differences between America and her country. The bus was late on her first day. Aoi had been very worried about meeting her superiors and making a good impression, and not having the bus arrive on time was stressful. The Japanese resident had barely arrived ten minutes late and changed into her scrubs when she had met her first superior.

            He was a tall man without any hair. A long white coat was around his shoulders, and Aoi felt small compared to him as barking words emerged from him – too fast for Aoi to understand. _Dr. Will Campbell,_ Aoi read silently as the words reached to a sudden stop and barked out a name.

            “Dr. Hudson!”

            Aoi turned and found another doctor wearing the same dark blue scrubs walking towards them. He was tall as well, although not as tall as Dr. Campbell, and had dark skin. His hair and eyes were as dark as hers, and Aoi only read part of the name tag when the Dr. Campbell suddenly turned.

            “Chan is from China. She will be yours to look after, as she is a first year surgical resident.” A strange smirk appeared on Dr. Campbell’s face as he looked towards Dr. Hudson. _I’m not from China,_ Aoi wanted to reply. But the look on Dr. Hudson’s face stopped her. It was a look that she had seen many times before. Of a person hiding their anger and indignation of the current situation.

            “One alien to another, right?”

            The akwardness and silence palpated in the center of the surgical department for a moment. Aoi could see several nurses and fellow doctors look away, and looked back at Dr. Hudson for a moment. As she looked closer at the surgical attending, the Japanese young woman could see that the doctor was young, perhaps three or four years older than her. He attempted to speak for a moment, but paused. Aoi could see anger in his eyes as he stared darkly at the place where Dr. Campbell had been standing in moments before.

            “I’m not from China.” Aoi chose to spoke, and she saw Dr. Hudson’s attention focus on her for a moment. She was more than a foot shorter than him, and her accent was somewhat thick, but she hoped that she felt as confident as she did as she spoke to him now. “I’m from Japan.” It took her only a moment to remember not to bow to him, as she often did to people that she respected. Aoi could see Dr. Hudson’s eyes focus on hers for a moment, before becoming pensive. “My name is Dr. Aoi Yasunari.”

            “Dr. Neal Hudson.”

            For a moment he smiled at her, but his eyes appeared to be distant after a moment.

            “I apologize about Campbell.” Dr. Hudson’s eyes drifted to where the other surgeon had stood moments before. “He can be a…wanker.”

            Aoi’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

            “Wanker?” Aoi repeated, inwardly wanting to laugh at the sudden guilty expression on Dr. Hudson’s face. “What does that mean?”

            She didn’t get the answer to the question.

* * *

 

            _Sensei…_ Aoi thought as she looked toward her mentor. It had been a long six months since she had arrived in Angels. The Japanese surgical resident had been surprised and happy when Dr. Hudson told her it was fine if she called him _sensei_. _“Most residents don’t call their mentors by their names until after years of working with them,”_ her mentor had explained during her first day in the OR. They had been doing a simple surgical procedure, and Aoi watched with almost awe of how amazingly quick her mentor was with completing the surgery. As she watched her _sensei_ work with the other surgeons, mainly Dr. Campbell, Aoi found herself very grateful that she was studying under Dr. Neal Hudson.

            _Sensei is very kind,_ Aoi thought as she watched the older surgeon look a patient’s chart. His focus seemed to become very sharp when reading over charts and doing surgery, Aoi had observed. _He’s always careful, and gentle with the patients._ Some surgeons treated patients as if they were simply made out of flesh and chemistry, but _Sensei_ had never allowed her to forget that patients were live human beings who trusted in their skill to heal them. _“Which means, you are here for a reason, Dr. Yasunari.”_ He was always so kind. To the patients, and to their families.

            One time, a young man had died during surgery, and Aoi had watched with wide eyes as she watched the dark surgical attending embrace the younger sister of the patient who had died, allowing her tears to soak through his scrubs and allowing her to hold onto him until she finally stopped crying. There were times too that Aoi found her teacher staring outside after a shift, his dark eyes lost until she called to him. It was something that Aoi was struggling with now, knowing that you couldn’t save a patient no matter how hard you tried and with blood pooling on the floor from the knife or gunshot wounds or crushed organs, the violence that seemed distressingly familiar to the sometimes foreign country they lived in. _“There are still some things I can’t get used to in the States,”_ Aoi’s sensei had confessed one time when the surgical resident had told him of how the buses in Japan were never late, and she still couldn’t get used to the food.

            _“Nani ka?”_ Aoi had asked, then blushed and couldn’t look at her mentor as her instructed her to cut there. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget where I am…” _When I am around you,_ she wanted to reply. But she knew better than to say that. To say that when she was with Dr. Hudson, her _sensei_ , it felt as if she was comfortable enough to speak her language around him. “I mean to ask,” Aoi asked with a short glance in her _sensei_ ’s direction, “what things haven’t you gotten used to?”

            For a moment, it appeared that her sensei was about to say something but didn’t. There was an unknown expression on his face that Aoi hadn’t seen before, a slightly distant look in his eyes that she almost drowned in. The only sound was the sound of the heart monitor. Then,

            “I haven’t gotten used to the taste of coffee.”

            For a moment Aoi looked at her mentor incrediously. Then, she could see the smile on his face through his surgical mask, and Aoi started to laugh. For a moment, her _sensei_ continued to smile before he started to laugh as well. It was a moment most unsuited to the OR, but to Aoi, the moment was gentle.

            _So then why…_

Aoi understood what her _sensei_ had been about to say when she asked him what she hadn’t gotten used to. There were many times when she and the older doctor had to preform surgeries in the ER. Aoi never forgot the shocked looks on the ER residents faces when she appeared beside Dr. Hudson. _“Who is this?”_ The Japanese surgical resident would never forget of how she heard the ER residents talk amongst themselves of who she was, never hearing from her _sensei_ that there was a new surgical resident that he was teaching. Mario- _san_ often quipped that Dr. Hudson and she were the Anglo-Japanese Alliance whenever the two walked by, and Aoi had been smiling at the comment when she saw Dr. Hudson look ahead. She couldn’t directly see his face, but the surgical resident could almost feel the sadness as she watched his gaze on Christa- _san_. The blond ER resident who had shared kind words with her appeared to be engrossed in reading a patient’s chart, but Aoi could see that the older resident was shifting slightly. She seemed to know who was watching her, and Aoi could see a faint sadness in her eyes as she turned away and left the counter with the red binder in her hand.

            The longing in her _sense_ i’s gaze was almost painful, and Aoi swallowed thickly as she attempted to force her expression into a neutral one. Her dark eyes could see that the other residents had observed the exchange as well. Malaya- _san_ was shaking her head slowly, a knowing and disappointed look in her eyes as she stared at the blond resident’s back. Mario- _san_ ’s former teasing expression turned to exasperation, looking at Angus- _san_ who was staring at Dr. Hudson with sadness.

            “When do you think he’ll admit it?” the light-brown haired-resident murmured, quiet enough so that only the residents could hear.

            Aoi didn’t have to ask what he meant.

            _Sensei…_ Aoi thought as she stared at the older surgeon who had taught her so much in the past six months. He was standing in the rain, allowing the wet droplets to brush across his skin. Soon his dark hair was wet, flat against his forehead now as the rain continued to pour. She could imagine his face now, pain and grief from a relationship that shouldn’t have ended, echoing across the vivid agony that she could see. Whenever he thought of Christa- _san._ Whenever he thought that she wasn’t looking, and he thought she wasn’t able to recognize who someone who was heartbroken. _Christa-san is hurting too…_ Aoi had heard of how Christa- _san_ still wore the scarf that her _sensei_ had given her despite eight months since the end of their relationship, and she could see of how her teacher and blond resident seemed to _know_ what the other was thinking. Their communication, when doing a procedure in the ER, was flawless. Hardly a word was spared, and Aoi could see of how Christa- _san_ was trying to hold herself together as the dark-haired surgeon started to walk upstairs with her. _“Christa ended the relationship because she believed Neal still had feelings for Grace,”_ Mike- _san_ had stated calmly when Aoi had come with him with questions about her sensei’s and Christa’s relationship. His blue eyes looked across to find the said female attending. _“…He asked her to marry him.”_

It was something Aoi couldn’t understand. _How could you leave him?_ Aoi thought as she observed the female attending with sharp eyes, frustration and anger combining as the surgical resident watched as Christa- _san_ started to assist Grace with the emergency procedure. _How could both of you leave him?_ Neal Hudson was so kind and so gentle, a person who felt so much and yet said nothing as the pain increased whenever she could see him with the blond resident he was in love with. _To be by his side…shouldn’t that be your dearest dream?_

But Aoi understood that Christa- _san_ was in as much pain as her sensei was. The first year surgical resident wondered if it was Christa’s tears that were drowning her mentor, looking as if he was crying. Grace still loved the person she had rejected marriage too…but Aoi had no sympathy for her.

            She had decided to not accept her sensei’s proposal, and it was too late to regret and wish for another ending. Aoi’s _sensei_ was in pain again, heartbreak clear to her now as Aoi’s gentle eyes stared at her mentor still standing in the rain.

            _Sensei_ … Aoi thought. She closed her eyes. In her mind, she could inwardly imagine her sensei’s smile, and a jolt of pain went through her heart at the heartbreak he was going through. _Anata wa…Christa-san o aishiteru desu ne?_

There was so much rain. So much rain in the sadness that Aoi understood too well.

            _Watashi wa…watashi wa anata no hohoemru mitai yo._

Aoi felt the slim material in her hands. A brief smile played across her lips as she caressed the small _mamori_ attached to the umbrella. The surgical attending had ordered it from Kyoto, searching for a romantic _mamori_. It was a protective auulet that was often generic in her country, but there were some specific ones that were given to specific occasions. Romantic protective auulet was a promise of a sort that you would find your romantic mate. Aoi caressed the red material slowly, inwardly wondering what she was going to say.

            _Doushite…_ she thought. For a moment, staring at her mentor standing in the rain, Aoi felt as if she was about to cry. _Doushite…watashi wa kanashii desu ka?_

 _Kono kao…_ Aoi thought as tears began to run down her face, her lips faintly trembling as she watched her _sensei_ start to shake. _Kono kao wa totemo kanashii yo._

_Watashi wa…zettaini…kono kao o mitakunai._

_“Sensei!”_

_Neal-sensei…_ Aoi thought as she watched him turn towards her. He was surprised to find an umbrella held out to him. The Japanese surgical resident softly looked at her mentor for a moment, staring at the soaked dark-blue scrubs, now looking almost black from the rain, and his dark hair plastered against his face. She pretended not to see his red-rimmed eyes.

            “It’s cold outside, _Sensei_.” Aoi looked at him, and could see his mouth begin to open as he saw tear tracks on her face. She spoke quickly and quietly to make it so that he couldn’t speak. “You look sad,” she whispered as rain pelted down her face, starting to soak her hair. “You look so sad when you think Christa- _san_ doesn’t see you.” Aoi softly smiled, attempting to bring her teaching at ease. “She does see you, Neal- _sensei_ ,” the surgical resident stated with the last letter coming out as a long ru. “Christa- _san…itsumo..._ sees you.”

            “Aoi –” her sensei started to say, but she shook her head.

            _“Watashi wa anata no shiawase o shinjiteru,”_ Aoi whispered. Gently, she took the umbrella from her _sensei_ ’s hands and opened it. She could see his eyes soulfully watching hers for a moment, before he took the red umbrella in his hands and stood with her in the rain.

            _Sesnei..mou…_ Aoi softly stated a goodbye to her _sensei_ as he tried to call out for her. She turned back, her dark hair damp against her shoulders as she saw Christa- _san_ walking out of the ER. Aoi’s dark eyes observed the surprise on Christa- _san_ ’s face as she found her former boyfriend holding an umbrella. A part of Aoi wanted to know what they were saying, and could see both doctors converse in the rain quietly. A moment later, the two started to walk. Aoi could see her _sensei_ and Christa- _san_ walk closely together as their distance continued, and the Japanese young woman turned and finally walked upstairs as the two were no longer seen.

            _Onegai…sensei mo nakainaide kudaisai._

 _Itai…_ Aoi thought as she changed out her scrubs. Her mind still thought of what she had witnessed. In Japanese culture, sharing an umbrella was often a sign of love. Adding the _mamori_ was just something to have the best desired effect. _Totemo itai…_

_Watashi no korokro…ga itai. Anata no itai…anata no namida…miru kara, watashi no kororo ga itai desu._

Softly, Aoi hummed a tune under her breath. It took only a moment for her to realize the song of what she was singing.

            _Horenai…Sensei._

_Watashi wa…dake…hohemu mitai._


End file.
